


A Real Boy

by Lunarium



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Infertility, Not Epilogue Compliant, brief discussion of periods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-05
Updated: 2019-01-05
Packaged: 2019-10-04 23:20:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17313740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarium/pseuds/Lunarium
Summary: The real reason why Chip was built.





	A Real Boy

**Author's Note:**

> For the H/C Bingo prompt "loss of identity" (which I took loosely as Pidge nearly losing sight of herself while building Chip.) 
> 
> Please read the tags. This gets into the topic of infertility.

The issue of having a family had never bothered Pidge. Science was her first love and Hunk was all too happy to let her spend more time with Science than with the living, breathing man she had said “I do” to, but a change had taken place over time. Perhaps it was the realization of what her irregular periods really meant. Perhaps it was watching Allura and Lance with children, and Shiro and Keith with their own, that switched on a sudden obsession. Perhaps an innate fear of the ticking clock, that they were getting old but the only one among their friends who had not yet had kids. 

Yet try as they might, they couldn’t conceive. 

The reason, as she had put it, was her fault. 

“Hey, it’s okay!” Hunk had said, rubbing circles on her back after she had dissolved into tears. “Not everyone needs kids to be happy! You can’t stand them, remember? You were about to murder Alfor when he spilled juniberry juice all over your new tablet, and you didn’t care if you killed him right in front of Allura! Maybe it’s for the best.” 

But it still hurt. Hunk got it. He really did. Having a family should have been a personal choice, and Pidge’s choice had been taken from her. After fighting to retrieve two of her family who had been in danger of getting killed by the Galra, it was only for her to learn that she was denied of any more family while her current were growing old. Matt couldn’t have a child with N7. And while Sam and Colleen were proud of their children, there was always the underlying tension that maybe, just maybe, they secretly wanted grandkids. 

Hunk wouldn’t even bring up the issue with his own family. They were bigger, they could afford one side not having children. Even in post-Galra attack society, the urgency to repopulate Earth simply wasn’t there. Adoption wasn’t an option; she wanted the child to come from herself. 

The solution presented itself to her while they were watching some movies with Sven and Akira, offering to babysit while Keith and Shiro were attending a meeting with some Garrison officials from another facility in the Midwest. 

For the first time in months Pidge’s eyes lit up as the woodcarver Geppetto danced the recently-made Pinocchio in his room and then lamented on not having a real boy. The puppet jingled about, hanging by some string. The image reflected off her glasses. 

The following week, Hunk witnessed the result of the movie’s inspiration: the garbled wires in the shape of a humanoid hung in the garage of the Garrison, hooked up to computers by some string. 

_I got no strings on me!_

“Whoa! You sure about this, Pidge?” Hunk asked. 

Pidge grinned as light passed over her glasses. 

At first Hunk had said nothing. Pidge was a tech expert. Building things was something she was good at. She set to writing the entire program for their son. Finding nothing wrong at first, Hunk set out to build the basic blueprint for the android. 

“I mean, I’m an engineer, and you’re the computer tech,” he said, giving her a kiss. “Our love and brains literally made him.” 

Hunk smiled at his own joke. Our love _and brains_ made him. 

Maybe something could come from this. 

But Pidge’s presence at home grew less frequent. And when she was home, she spoke of nothing else other than _their son_. The words flowed out of her with fevered affection as if she carried him in her own womb. Something about the way her eyes twinkled madly, almost comically. 

Hunk swallowed thickly; they used to love to play like mad scientists in the lab back in the Castle, but this was different. Pidge no longer cared about games, or sleeping, or even eating. She reminded him of the stories Allura spoke of, of the notes Honerva had written towards the end of her life as she descended into madness, and Hunk’s dreams were filled with the horrible return of the past, of sharp long claws around Hunk’s neck. 

And when Pidge spoke of their child, he could almost hear Haggar’s slithery voice out through her mouth.

“Quintessence,” Pidge was saying one night. “If we can fuse him with quintessence, he can be real. Like, _really_ real, Hunk! He wouldn’t be just a mechanical son, but our real son, our real boy! 

“Are you hearing yourself right now?” Hunk said. “You sound just like Haggar! And digging around for quintessence is what got us into this mess in the first place!” 

But Pidge’s eyes glowed with fevered obsession. It was either going to kill her to drive her over the edge as it did to Honerva.

*

Matt had come in to help. It was Hunk’s idea to call him in, and it was for the better. Somehow seeing Matt putting his hand into the mix had alleviated some of Hunk’s concerns. He worked without question, and his presence had a calming effect. Under the presence of her brother, her fever lessened. He had a way of turning down her ideas without riling her up. Instead of seeking to destroy or halt the project, Matt worked towards completing it. And seeing that Matt wasn’t there to antagonize the android, Pidge was more welling to listen.

It became their thing to work on, and the quest to become a mother became more like a fun science project. No mad scientists in sight. 

“Um, Hunk?” 

Hunk gave a start at Pidge’s voice. Oddly shy for someone who was, just a week ago, ready to tear all of time and space for quintessence Haggar-style. 

“Matt and I were thinking,” Pidge said, readjusting her glasses. “General Hawkins needs another pilot for the Air Team, and I think it’d be really cool if our son joins. He doesn’t have to grow up. He’ll come into consciousness with all the knowledge he needs to pilot.” 

“Yeah! That sounds great!” Hunk said, smiling encouragingly. 

“But I’ll need something to make him _ours_ ,” Pidge said. “I need just a small sample of our quintessence from our lions.” 

Hunk groaned. “You’re still on about that?” 

“Hunk, I know what I’m doing. Trust me.”

*

Hunk got into the Yellow Lion just as she got into Green. Matt was outside to collect the samples as they both sat and concentrated, bonding with their respective lions until each lion glowed.

“And now this will form his heart!” Pidge said with a smile as she showed Hunk the sample. He studied the small crystal vial of swirling yellow and green light. Somehow, he had a good feeling about this, the first time in a long while.

*

_“So, have you been thinking of any names?”_

_“Yeah, I was thinking of Chip.”_

*

When at last Hunk saw their finished product—er, their son—he was taken back. The boy ran up to him and gave him a big, warm hug.

“Hey there, little tyke!” Hunk said, laughing. 

“Good afternoon, Dad!” his child said. “I believe you have mistaken my name. It is not “Tyke” but “Chip.” 

“Oh, right, right! Sorry, Chip!” 

Chip beamed up at him. His facial features had both: a little of Hunk and a little of Pidge. She had taken such care in sculpting him that even with a metal head, he was clearly meant to be seen as their child. _Theirs_. A second later, Hunk realized Pidge had given him her glasses. 

_Our love and our brains have made him._

And in a way, they had. 

_I’m a dad!_ Hunk suddenly realized. _Holy crow!_

*

Allura had stilled when she first saw him, amazed, as had Keith, whose eyes had widened.

“I…I can feel his quintessence!” Allura had said, and Keith had nodded in agreement. Pidge’s grin spread from ear to ear as she proudly showed him off to her parents and all her friends. Within the year Chip had joined the Air Team as Pidge had wanted for him. 

But Hunk didn’t need to hear from Allura and Keith that Chip was a real boy. Running with him, going on picnics, introducing Chip to the great world of Monsters & Mana, and discussing space and mechanics well into the evening…it didn’t feel like Chip was just an android at all. 

Chip was a real boy, and he was their son, created from love.


End file.
